1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) based pressure sensors and in particular to such sensors in which only a part of the SAW substrate is pressure sensitive
2. The Prior Art
SAW based sensors are known in which a plurality of SAW devices are mounted on a single substrate, the substrate being divided into strained and unstrained regions with SAWs being mounted on both regions so as to enable both temperature and pressure to be monitored, or at least to enable temperature compensated pressure readings to be taken. For example, GB 0302311.6 discloses a SAW pressure and temperature sensor in which three SAWs are mounted on a single substrate, one of the SAWs being mounted on a portion of the substrate whose strain field varies with various in pressure whilst the other two are mounted on regions of the substrate which are substantially decoupled from the strain field, the information from the threes SAWs enabling both pressure and temperature readings to be calculated for the environment surrounding the substrate.
In GB 0302311.6, pressure variations in the surrounding environment are transmitted to the substrate by a mechanical connection between a pressure sensitive diaphragm and the strained region of the substrate. The substrate is then either simply supported or built in at the boundaries of the strained region so as to decouple the surrounding regions from the strain field. This approach has the drawback, however, that it is not completely effective for isolating the strained region of the substrate.
An alternative approach known in the prior art, for example in MEMs silicon and quartz devices, is to use a thick substrate which is substantially in-sensitive to pressure and locally etch a region of the substrate to make a thin diaphragm zone which is pressure sensitive, transducing elements being placed on this diaphragm zone for detection of pressure and also on the un-etched areas for temperature monitoring. The whole substrate is then exposed to the surrounding atmosphere, but only the diaphragm zone is responsive thereto and hence only the output of the elements mounted on that zone varies with pressure. This approach has the drawback, however, that the etching process if expensive and time consuming.